Montblanc takes on Tag with new Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch

The Montblanc Summit is the latest Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch to launch, but it’s not just your average wrist-worn gadget.

It’s made from luxury materials, like stainless steel and titanium, with a curved sapphire crystal display. It’s meant for fashion-minded people, though it’s also got the hardware to keep techies pleased. It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip, 1.39-inch, 400 x 400, AMOLED display (with no flat-tyre), and is 12.5mm thick. Keep in mind the new Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45 is 13.75mm thick.

Unfortunately, the Montblanc Summit lacks serious waterproofing, GPS, and NFC connectivity. That means you can’t use it with Android Pay, nor can you really make this a sport watch for your runs or swims, etc. The message here is that it is meant to look good while serving up Android Wear 2.0 goodness. If that interests you, the stainless steel models start at $890 (€950) and come with a standard leather strap.

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Meet #MontblancSummit. Our first smartwatch. Introducing a world-first for wearable technology. #BeAHEAD #Montblanc pic.twitter.com/cgL2CVVu9t

— Montblanc (@montblanc_world) March 16, 2017

You can also get a rubber or navy band, and there are titanium models that start at $980. Other features include 512MB of RAM, 4GB of on-board storage, 300mAh battery, heart-rate sensor, barometer, ambient light sensor, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connectivity. 

It also does offer IP68 resistance, which means it’s only splash-proof.

Amazon puts Alexa inside your iPhone

Now you can talk to Amazon’s intelligent assistant whenever you use the Amazon app on your iPhone. Alexa will be able to do much more than just deal with your Amazon account, like play songs from Amazon Music, give you news updates, or even tell a (bad) joke or two. You’ll also be able to use any of your previously enabled skills that are available within the Alexa ecosystem. According to Amazon, the one thing you won’t be able to do just yet is to ask Alexa to open your door locks with your voice.

Don’t uninstall the Alexa app just yet, though, because you’ll need it to tweak your default settings.

The iPhone isn’t the only handset to get Alexa — Huawei announced the voice service for its upcoming Mate 9 phone — but it is the first. Getting Alexa on as many devices as possible makes a lot of sense for Amazon, which is competing with Apple and Google for digital assistant supremacy.

The iOS update to the Amazon app should roll out starting today and continue for the next week.

Via: VentureBeat

Google Home is playing ads for ‘Beauty and The Beast’

Whether you care about the latest Emma Watson film or not, Google Home will tell you all about it. Recently, the smart speaker’s users have noticed that the disembodied Assistant will give you a rundown of the upcoming, live action Beauty and the Beast when you ask for a summary of your day’s events. It seems widespread beyond the folks who pointed it out on Reddit and appears regardless of if you’ve shown interest in the movie. One of our staffers heard it as well and at least one Redditor says it’s also appearing on their phone. On our house Google Pixel, it didn’t however.

“By the way, Disney’s live action Beauty and The Beast opens today,” it says, amid your daily info dump. “In this version of the story, Belle is the inventor instead of Maurice. That rings truer if you ask me. For some more movie fun, ask me something about Belle.” As The Verge points out, this isn’t an actionable item, really. You can’t buy movie tickets or anything because Google Home doesn’t work with services like Fandango at the moment.

It isn’t too unique — Rokus, Xboxes and even some Panasonic TVs have displayed ads for awhile — but given that advertising is one of Google’s biggest moneymakers, this could become more widespread. When asked for clarification, Google offered the following response: “This isn’t an ad; the beauty in the Assistant is that it invites our partners to be our guest and share their tales.” In other words, you too can advertise on Google Assistant if your pockets are deep enough.

New Beauty & the Beast promo is one way Google could monetize Home. cc: @gsterling @dannysullivan pic.twitter.com/9UlukSocrO

— brysonmeunier (@brysonmeunier) March 16, 2017

Source: Reddit, Bryson Meunier

Montblanc’s first smartwatch is the luxury Summit

Luxury brand Montblanc has already made a few tentative steps into the smart things space. And just as a simpler stylus preceded a fancier note digitizer, Montblanc is now ready to follow up its e-Strap accessory with a fully fledged Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch. It’s called the Summit, and there’s nothing too out of the ordinary as far as components go: A 1.39-inch (400 x 400) AMOLED display sits up front, with a Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip, 512MB of RAM and 4 gigs of storage tucked away behind. Other notable elements include a heart-rate sensor and built-in microphone, but Montblanc is under no illusion it’s pushing the boundaries of technology here. It’s much more concerned with style.

Montblanc says the release of Android Wear 2.0 presented the perfect opportunity for it to launch a smartwatch, since the latest version of Google’s wearable platform plays much nicer with iOS (thus increasing the Summit’s potential customer base). You won’t hear phrases like “wearable platform” from the mouth of any company rep, though. The sales pitch is angled more for the benefit of the fashion and vintage crowds.

The idea was to put Swiss style and the same design language as Montblanc’s 1858 analog timepiece collection into a smartwatch. As you might expect, the Summit includes a selection of exclusive watch faces — primarily digital versions of classic Montblanc designs, as well as the odd new one with stopwatch functionality and the like. Uber, Foursquare and Runtastic are also preinstalled on the wearable (with introductory promotions), for the jet-setting type that likes to stay in shape.

Naturally, the luxury brand used only the finest stainless steel and the top graded titanium to create the four, 46mm diameter bodies. There are silver and black PVD-coated stainless steel models, a silver titanium model, and a dual-color steel version with silver body and a black watch face bezel with second markings. All versions can be paired with rubber, leather or alligator leather bands.

There’s no denying the impeccable build quality of the Summit, which is water-resistant (IP68 rating), by the way. It shows in the brushed metal with satin finish, the elaborate crown that’s actually a button, the lovingly chamfered edges all around, and the slightly domed sapphire glass that protects the AMOLED display. Despite the workmanship, the watches appear to me to be otherwise exceedingly generic, though someone with much better fashion sense than I might care to disagree. With a maximum height of 12.5mm, they’re also excessively chunky, and heart-rate sensor aside they don’t look like the type of wearable that’s particularly suited to running.

Like the recently announced TAG Heuer luxury wearable, money can’t buy you more than a day’s battery life from the Summit’s 350mAh unit. And if you hadn’t guessed by now, you’re expected to pay significantly more for Montblanc’s first smartwatch than Samsung or LG’s latest. Pricing for all the stainless steel models starts at $890 if you can live with a plain leather strap, jumping to $930 for a colored rubber strap or hand-painted navy or brown leather band. The coveted alligator strap ups that price by $50 to bring the grand total to $980. This is the starting price for the titanium model, which increases to $1,020 and $1,070, respectively, as the bands get fancier. UK pricing starts at £765 for a steel body with standard black leather strap.

The Summit will initially go on sale online at the beginning of May in the US and UK, before launching in other parts of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, India, South Africa, Mexico and Australia before the end of July.

Buzz Aldrin turns to VR to explain how we can get to Mars

Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut and the second person to set foot on the moon, may be 87, but he’s keeping his mind focused on the next space frontier. For decades now, he’s thought about how to get astronauts to Mars, becoming more vocal about his plans in recent years. He’s also a fan of virtual reality as a medium to communicate his vision: He partnered with NASA to build a Mars Hololens experience last year, and now he’s hosting a 10-minute VR experience that walks you through his vision of how to get to Mars.

Cycling Pathways to Mars features a holographic Buzz Aldrin walking viewers through a VR landscape that starts on the moon and uses that as a jumping-off point to show our solar system and how we might get to Mars. It’s not easy to sum up, but Aldrin envisions having two ships constantly cycling between Earth and Mars on six-month schedules, taking advantage of when the planets line up favorable for moving back and forth between the system. Smaller launchers would dock with the two big cycling ships and head down to Mars’ moon and eventually down to the planet’s surface.

That’s an extremely high-level overview of what Aldrin shows off in the VR feature, which debuted at SXSW this week. That’s just part of Aldrin’s presence in Austin this week, however: He also participated in a panel discussing how to get to Mars and then took the time to sit with a small media group to answer some questions.

After trying Aldrin’s VR experience for myself, I wanted to know how we can make his vision a reality. To make a long story short, his answer was: baby steps. “First, we have to understand the conditions under which we’re going to use something,” he said, referring to everything we need to built to get us to Mars and make it safe to live there. “Then we design something and we can see how it works on the ground, and then we can put it in orbit.”

The next step is a big part of the plan, using the moon as a localized testing site. “We need to bring a lot of things together to make [Mars] a habitable place for a number of people,” Aldrin said. “It would be nice to design something like that at the moon.” There will be intermediate steps between the moon and Mars, but the idea is to then use Mars’ moon Phobos as a place where we can land and make final preparations for actually reaching the red planet’s surface.

“We don’t have to get people there until we need to do the delicate [work]. We get them up there, they know what they have to do and they get it done,” Aldrin said. He believes we’ll be able to do a lot of work remotely, from Earth, but we’ll need to be closer for final preparations because of the time delays between executing a command here on Earth and seeing how it works 225 million kilometers away on Mars. But we can also build the time delays into all the practice we do, whether it’s here on Earth, communicating between the Earth and the moon, or another situation.

One thing Aldrin made clear in his Q&A session is that he wants to colonize Mars — which means some travelers won’t be coming home. “I think it’s better to do [let people live there permanently] than to go through the expense of having people there for a year and a half, two years and then bring them home,” Aldrin said. “Especially if they have prepared to and made the decision, have the willingness and desire to go and spend the rest of their lives there, pioneering.” Aldrin specifically said he hopes that colonizing Mars can become a national objective. “I think the objective is to expand the human race outward, and [Mars is] the most likely place to set up permanently.”

Aldrin won’t live to see this goal met, but he’s still committed to doing what he can to make it happen as soon as is reasonable. To that end, he’s not interested in playing politics. When asked if he was worried about the current administration’s policies slowing things down, he simply said, “I’m not involved in politics. Whoever is in the White House has to be my friend.” But even if he was going to live long enough to go to Mars, he doesn’t think it would be the best use of his time. “I’m more valuable here than I ever think I could be there,” he said before jokingly noting, “I’m not an outdoorsman.”

Click here to catch up on the latest news from SXSW 2017.

The Wirecutter’s best deals: Save $200 on a Yuneec Q500 Typhoon drone

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.

You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.

Rowenta DW 9280 SteamForce Iron

Street price: $120; MSRP: $200; Deal price: $100

This is an excellent deal on this iron. While we’ve posted as low as $98 (post-Thanksgiving last year), we’ve generally seen this iron stay at or above $120, so this drop to $100 brings the Rowenta SteamForce down to a price worth noting.

The Rowenta DW 9280 SteamForce Iron is our expensive upgrade pick in our guide to the best clothes iron. Jackie Reeve wrote, “The Rowenta DW 9280 SteamForce iron, our luxury pick, was the best overall at wrinkle busting. It melted creases out of linen napkins and pressed quilt seams with almost no effort. We’ve never seen an iron give off more steam. But it’s heavier and much more expensive than our top pick and runner-up, so we would recommend it for crafters, sewers, and those with busy households and/or tons of laundry — i.e. anyone willing to make the investment to save time and energy.”

Crock-Pot 6-Quart Programmable Cook & Carry Slow Cooker

Street price: $44; MSRP: $60; Deal price: $34

This is one of the best prices we’ve seen on this slow cooker, beating typical lows by a few dollars. We normally only see this slow cooker drop from its street price of $50 down to a deal price of $40, so this is quite a nice deal. While we saw it very slightly lower in late January, that was for a deal of the day and only featured the stainless steel finish. This deal features the $35 price on both the stainless and red finishes. Shipping is free with Prime.

The Crock-Pot Programmable Cook and Carry Oval 6-Quart is our runner-up pick in our guide for the best slow cooker. Christine Cyr Clisset wrote, “If you find you need a timer that goes longer than 14 hours (which is the upper limit on the Set & Forget), we recommend the highly reviewed and easy-to-use Crock-Pot Programmable Cook and Carry Oval Slow Cooker. It does cook for 20 hours, compared with the Set & Forget’s 14, and looks more up-to-date (because it is); we like its handles and locking mechanism a little better, too.”

Refurbished Yuneec Q500 Typhoon 4K

Street price: $700 (new); MSRP: $1000 (new); Deal price: $500

This is the first decent deal we’ve seen in quite some time on this drone. We’ve seen the street price of the Yuneec Q500 drop down to a little over $700 over the past year, but this deal on this refurbished model is a big $200 drop below that and the best price we’ve seen so far. It also comes with a 1-year warranty.

The Yuneec Q500 Typhoon 4K is our runner-up pick in our guide to the best drones. Mike Perlman wrote, “If you’re not keen on keeping up with every new iPhone release, Yuneec’s Q500 Typhoon 4K is a solid option. Rather than relying on a smartphone as half of the controls, the Yuneec’s Android-based remote controller has a built-in touchscreen for flight monitoring. This design not only expedites the setup process but also removes the pressure on you to sport the latest and greatest mobile device.”

Refurbished GoPro Hero4 Black Action Camera

Street price: $330 (new); MSRP: $500 (new); Deal price: $250

This is an incredible deal on a refurbished model of the GoPro Hero4 Black, our former upgrade pick for best action camera. We normally see the refurbished Hero4 Black going for upwards of $330, so this is a huge $80 drop in price. This model is certified refurbished directly from GoPro and come with a standard 1-year warranty, plus free 2-day shipping and free returns. Although it’s no longer in our current line-up of picks for best action cameras (due to cost), at this price it’s a huge bargain and $150 less than the new Hero5 Black.

The GoPro Hero4 Black is our former upgrade, 4K video capable pick in our guide to the best action cameras. Brent Rose said, “The big selling points on the Black are 4K footage (3840×2160) at up to 30 fps; 1080p video at 120 fps for super smooth slow-motion; and a whole array of modes in between.”

Because great deals don’t just happen on Thursdays, sign up for our daily deals email and we’ll send you the best deals we find every weekday. Also, deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.

‘Lawbreakers’ prepares to take on ‘Overwatch’ with closed beta

Lawbreakers, the new team-based shooter from Gears of War developer Cliff Bleszinski and Boss Key Productions, is inching closer to launch. Its first closed beta starts today and runs through March 19th.

It’s a closed beta, so not everyone will get a chance to try the game this week. Everyone who received a key for the game’s alpha will automatically get access. If you signed up and didn’t get a key, Boss Key Productions says you’ll have a higher chance of getting into the beta. If you’re totally new to the game, you can sign up on its official website. Boss Key will be inviting select players from all signup groups.

Lawbreakers is coming out at a time when the market for online team-based shooters is reaching the saturation point. Blizzard megahit Overwatch currently dominates that space, while Gearbox’s Battleborn and Epic Games’ Paragon could provide competition as well. But, in a recent interview with Engadget, Bleszinski said he believes there’s still an audience for multiple character-based shooters. We’ll find out whether or not he’s right when Lawbreakers officially launches, though there’s no word yet on when exactly that will be.

Source: Boss Key Productions

What Trump’s budget would mean for NASA and climate change

President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget beefs up the Defense Department while removing funds from the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, NASA and many other government agencies. Congress still has to pass the budget, but if it’s approved it will shut down a handful of programs designed to research and combat climate change.

Despite overwhelming consensus in the scientific community, multiple members of the Trump administration have argued that climate change is not a man-made occurrence, including new EPA head Scott Pruitt. So, it’s not surprising that Trump’s proposed budget slashes climate change research programs and funding — but it is concerning.

First up, the Environmental Protection Agency. The proposed budget begins to dismantle the EPA, cutting 31 percent of its funding, dropping from $8.2 billion to $5.7 billion. This is the largest proposed slash and it drops EPA funding to its lowest level in 40 years.

The budget eliminates 3,200 agency jobs and more than 50 programs, including international climate change initiatives and research programs, and grants that help states and cities fight pollution. It also cuts off funding for the Clean Power Plan, which attempts to curtail carbon dioxide emissions in the interest of slowing global warming.

“The budget for EPA reflects the success of environmental protection efforts, a focus on core legal requirements, the important role of the States in implementing the Nation’s environmental laws, and the President’s priority to ease the burden of unnecessary Federal regulations that impose significant costs for workers and consumers without justifiable environmental benefits,” the budget reads.

Next up, the Department of Energy. The proposed budget cuts $1.7 billion from the DOE, an annual decrease of about 6 percent. This leaves the agency with $28 billion, much of which Trump wants to funnel into managing the United States’ nuclear stockpile. The budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration would grow 11.3 percent while the remaining DOE programs would be cut by 17.9 percent.

Notably, Trump wants to eliminate the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, which invests in cutting-edge climate change research. Meanwhile, the Office of Science, which supports research at universities nationwide, would lose $900 million of its $5 billion budget. The budget also eliminates the Energy Star, Weatherization Assistance Program, Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program and Title 17 loan guarantees.

Additionally, Trump’s proposed budget eliminates an international program enacted at the 2015 Paris climate summit. The US promised to provide $3 billion in aid to poorer countries to help them cut carbon emissions and build clean energy systems; Barack Obama’s administration provided $1 billion of that pledge.

The new proposed budget “fulfills the President’s pledge to cease payments to the United Nations’ (UN) climate change programs by eliminating US funding related to the Green Climate Fund and its two precursor Climate Investment Funds.”

Finally, there’s NASA. The agency would see a small cut of about 1 percent, leaving $19.1 billion in the bank. However, this a precise slash — it cuts $102 million from the Earth science budget and eliminates four programs designed to help scientists better understand climate change. One of these programs, PACE, monitors ways the oceans and atmosphere respond to climate change, while another, OCO-3, measures the distribution of carbon dioxide on the planet. Plus, NASA’s Office of Education is dismantled for a savings of $115 million.

The proposal says the changes to NASA’s budget would “[focus] the Nation’s efforts on deep space exploration rather than Earth-centric research.” This might indeed come in handy once global warming cooks our entire planet and humans are forced to find a new place to live.

Source: The White House